Latest Blog Posts
Stick Time: Conducting Study 9
As conductors, what we DON’T do is oftentimes vastly more important than what we do. Far too many conductors become their own worst enemy by presenting obstacles to success. Even the most stout-hearted among us has felt at one time or another some degree of nervousness before a concert. We are all aware, however, […]
Stick Time: Dance with the Choir
One of the challenges of choral performance is to make our concerts visually interesting without detracting from the music. Here is one example from a recent ACDA divisional conference that included dance as a part of the performance.
Stick Time: Singing Jazz After Graduation
Somewhere on this lovely June day, a recent graduate is asking herself what she is going to do to continue singing now that her days in the college cocoon are over. She is probably feeling a sense of loss. It’s one thing to sing every day in the controlled environment of an educational institution. […]
Stick Time: The Renaissance at ACDA
One of the on-going topics of discussion in the choral profession surrounds the matter of programming for performance at a divisional or national ACDA conference (scroll to page 8). The question boils down to this: do we program the great works of the standard canon, or do we seek out new music? (I know I’m […]
Stick Time: What Can Junior High School Singers Do?
What can junior high school singers do? Well, if this sample from a recent ACDA division conference is an indication, the answer is a resounding, ANYTHING! They are singing a work from the standard repertoire (clearly edited for these developing voices) and doing so with musicality, blend, balance, poise, and healthy use of the voice. […]
Amazon is redefining publishing
i occasionally look over to the book publishing world of Amazon and booksellers and I wonder if their struggle with the new digital economy will have an impact on ours. With that in mind, I saw this the other day (see below). Publishers and authors are being warned, beware of Amazon. I’m trying […]
Mark Twain on Creativity
Stephen Downes always points towards great material, this time from Mark Twain: Mark Twain was someone who saw through the more persistent myths of his time – and ours. “It takes a thousand men to invent a telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or a photograph, or a telephone or any other […]
Musicians vs everyone else
Jeffrey Tucker writes about the isolation of musicians, saying that church musicians live in their own little world and it’s hard for pastors or parishioners to communicate with them. He says that parisioners have a sense that they have no more business intervening in the world of music than they have in telling the plumber […]
Saturday Respite: Beep Beep!
Saturday morning? CARTOONS! For the next six minutes and sixteen seconds my only concern is do I want a chocolate doughnut or the powdered sugar one?